Chuck Hagel

Washington -- Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., was one of several lawmakers on Tuesday who tried to pin down top Pentagon officials on the administration's new campaign to target Islamic militants in Iraq and Syria, and they were not satisfied with the answers. Blumenthal, at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, read part of a speech Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel made on the floor of the Senate in 2002, when Hagel was still a Republican senator from Nebraska. Back then, Hagel was skeptical of legislation that would authorize the use of military force in Iraq, legislation the White House now says gives it authority to go after Islamic militants in Syria known as ISIS or ISIL....

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